Björn-Ole Kamm

Kyoto University | Kyodai · Graduate School of Letters

Non-digital role-playing game forms (RPGs), such as Dungeons & Dragons and larp, increasingly gain scholarly attention from various disciplines. The focus continues to privilege the Euro-US environment, so that this study seeks to fill the knowledge deficit about such games in and from Japan. Because RPG practices display a hard-to-grasp fluidity i...

The question as to who bridges barriers as well as the role of insider-scholars leads to the fourth axis of uncertainty, which revolves around actor knowledge, researchers and theories. All previous uncertainties or controversies relate to the issue of who is to speak for the parties involved. The last chapter in lieu of a conclusion ends this book...

This first controversy opens the door to the second conflict, which revolves around the question of stereotypical labels based on “reality’s” special place. Many publications on role-players try to overcome a stereotype of obsessiveness and dangerousness—similar to most work on otaku, a Japanese pronoun used derogatorily by some, yet a proud appell...

The first conflict is informed by the uncertainty of a distinction between reality and fiction. The loci of dispute are bad influences on youth, cultivation processes through media, escapism into media, or game induced violence as well as positively evaluated learning effects. All share shifting boundaries of what is meant by invoking reality. Base...

Related to connectedness and leading towards “global” group formations, the Internet and “new” communication technologies form the third avenue of uncertainty. The Internet’s uncertainty of interest in the third Act is its ability to connect. Until very recently Japan was believed to know only computer RPGs. The plethora of Japanese non-digital gam...

“At length, proponents of Japanese geek or otaku culture have been shunning both themselves and others asking about the relationship between games and reality. With the advent of this book, which should be titled “The otaku, or There and Back Again,” I believe that research on otaku finally gained a map to return from virtual reality to reality.” -...

“Performance ethnography” seeks to give people a voice by staging events, plays, and exhibitions together with those under study. Still, the audience of such events remains just that and gains experience only second-hand. Contrastingly, live-action role-plays (larps) provide first-hand experience. Building on performance ethnography and taking the...

Background. The history of larp, live-action role-play, in Japan may be rather short but documents exponential growth in the entertainment sector as well as in educational gaming. Following trends of related forms of analog role-playing games, the horror genre functions as a motor of increasing popularity. Aim. This article explores the development...

The cover art of Mia Consalvo’s Atari to Zelda could not have been chosen better: A pixelated reproduction of Hokusai’s famous The Great Wave, it speaks to the tensions between the up-to-date topic of video games and orientalist images of Japan, between mere consumption and deeper understanding, between the local and the global. Throughout the book...

Live-action role-play (larp), a mixture of improv-theatre and role-playing game where participants interact physically as characters in a shared story, draws thousands of participants in Europe but gained interest in Japan only since 2012 — with an exponentially increasing popularity. This young practice still faces various material constraints, on...

Live-action role-play (larp) has been named a “new performative art,” an immersive experience, and an educational tool, but it is much more: A playground of intermingling social and cultural realities, a door to new worlds. This paper offers an introduction to larp, its transcultural history, and its disruptive and creative possibilities, as well a...

In Tischrollenspielen übernehmen Spielerinnen und Spieler fiktionale Charaktere, um gemeinsam eine diegetische Wirklichkeit zu erschaffen, in der sie Abenteuer bestehen, Geschichten erzählen oder andere Sichtweisen und Persönlichkeiten ausprobieren. Während in Computerrollenspielen Avatare durch CGI-Umgebungen gesteuert werden, vollzieht sich die H...

The history of larp in Japan does not reach further back than the late 2000s, and its practice only started to awake broader interest in 2012 through the abridged and commented Japanese translation of DragonSys by Nico Stahlberg and Sugiura Nobutaka. As young as fantasy and sci-fi larp is in Japan, it faces a number of material constraints, one of...

Focusing on the often neglected individual modes of consumption and ascriptions of meaning, I propose a theoretical and conceptual framework for the analysis of the diversity of the use and appropriation of the boys' love (BL) genre. Within the framework of theories of media gratification, I bring together key elements of BL fandom, such as playing...

Even though similar practices like cosplay (masquerading as media characters) exist in Japan, larp is quite unheard of. The aim of this study is to understand why Japanese roleplayers do not see larp as an activity they can easily adopt. Instead of following a common, Western research perspective on Japan that repeats notions of Japanese uniqueness...